1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage material having a device to treat bottles and a method of treating bottles with said device.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
The treatment of containers, in particular of containers and/or packaging for perishable contents, such as beverages, cosmetics etc., for example, with ultraviolet radiation is basically known from the prior art (DE 44 07 183 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 2,384,778 and WO 02/36437).
One feature that all the devices and methods of the prior art have in common is that for the emission of the ultraviolet radiation during the sterilization of the interior of the containers, the ultraviolet source is introduced into the respective container through the container opening. At least one of the disadvantages that has to be taken into consideration is the fact that the type and shape of the containers to be sterilized must also be taken into consideration in the realization of the ultraviolet source, and in particular the cross section of the container opening. In other words, the design and construction of the ultraviolet source cannot be based exclusively on the maximum possible radiation generation and the maximum possible efficiency.
The prior art also teaches a method in which, for the internal sterilization of containers, the interior surface of which is to be treated with an ultraviolet radiation generated in an ultraviolet laser that is outside the respective container and simultaneously with an infrared radiation that is also generated in a laser (EP 0 579 679 B1). The radiation is introduced into the individual container by means of reflectors.